28 October,2024 09:21 AM IST | Mumbai | Dharmendra Jore
Sanjay Upadhyay, who got the ticket to contest from Borivli on Monday
In its third list of 25 candidates, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has dropped five sitting MLAs, including Sunil Rane, who is representing Borivli. With 24 seats still to be distributed between three Mahayuti partners, the BJP has so far named 146 candidates. Rane, the Borivli MLA, was replaced by Sanjay Upadhyay. Rane had replaced the sitting MLA Vinod Tawde in 2019. It is considered as the BJP's safest seat in Mumbai where it has been winning for five decades. Bharti Lavekar (Versova), Parag Shah (Ghatkopar East) and Ram Satpute (Malshiras-SC) have been retained. In Dahanu, Vinod Medha will be the BJP's face. In Vasai, Sneha Dubey has been nominated.
Sunil Rane, incumbent Borivli MLA
In Mumbai, the BJP had 16 MLAs in 2019. In its first list, the party had announced 14 candidates, including city unit president Ashish Shelar (sitting in Bandra West) and his brother Vinod Shelar (debuting in Malad West). Sitting MLAs - Manisha Chaudhary (Dahisar), Mihir Kotecha (Mulund), Atul Bhatkhalkar (Kandivli East), Yogesh Sagar (Charkop), Vidya Thakur (Goregaon), Ameet Satam (Andheri West), Parag Alavani (Vile Parle), Ram Kadam (Ghatkopar West), Tamil Selvan (Sion-Koliwada), Kalidas Kolamkar (Wadala), Mangal Prabhat Lodha (Malabar Hill) and Rahul Narvekar (Colaba) were retained. Three constituencies were left undeclared.
With three more on Monday, the BJP's number of Mumbai nominees has gone up to 17 of 36 seats. The party expects to get more. Shinde Sena has named 11 candidates and NCP-AP just one. This is the third successive election that the BJP has given an outsider to contest from Borivli. In 2014, it was Vinod Tawde. As drama unfolded five years later, another outsider Sunil Rane replaced Tawde. Now it is Rane's turn to let in Upadhyay, also a non-resident of Borivli.
Vikas Kumbhare, sitting MLA, Nagpur Central. (right) Pravin Datke, BJP's Nagpur Central candidate. PIC/X
The BJP gave four seats to its small allies. The party made an announcement to this effect Monday night. Mumbai's Kalina has gone the Republic Party of India-Ramdas Athawale faction. Shahuwadi has been given to Vinay Kore. Badnera went to Ravi Rana and Gangakhed to Mahadev Jankar's party. It is still not known whether Jankar, who had decided to fight solo, has accepted the offer.
In Vidarbha's Arvi, Dy CM Devendra Fadnavis's former executive secretary/officer on special duty in the CMO, Sumit Wankhede, will be the BJP's new candidate. The party dropped a sitting MLA and party veteran, Dadarao Keche, to accommodate young Wankhede, an engineer by training. Wankhede started working under Fadnavis last decade after his graduation and master's in political leadership and government. In 2019, Fadnavis had successfully fielded another OSD, Abhimanyu Pawar, in Ausa near Latur. Pawar is in the Ausa contest yet again.
In Nagpur Central, BJP replaced its sitting MLA Vikas Kumbhare with MLC and city unit president Pravin Datke. Arni's sitting MLA Dr Sandip Dhurve has been denied yet another opportunity. His predecessor Raju Todsam will be the party's ST face there. Umarkhed (SC) constituency also got a new BJP candidate in Kishan Wankhede, for whom a sitting MLA Namdev Sasane was sidelined.
Sumit Wankhede, who will contest the Arvi seat. PIC/Facebook; (right) Dadarao Keche, Arvi MLA. Pic/X
The BJP retained Harish Pimple in Murtizapur, and brought in an independent MLA Kishor Jorgewar to make him its candidate in Chandrapur. Sai Dahake, wife of former MLA Prakash Dahake (NCP-AP) of Karanja was inducted on Saturday and given a ticket on Monday. In Tiosa, Rajesh Wankhede will take on former minister Yashomati Thakur yet again. In Katol, Charansingh Thakur will be up against former home minister Anil Deshmukh's son Salil Deshmukh (NCP-SP). In neighbouring Savner, Ashish Deshmukh will lead a BJP challenge against former minister Sunil Kedar's wife Anuja (Congress).
Former minister Nitin Raut (Congress) will again meet his rival Dr Milind Mane in Nagpur South (SC), who had won in 2014 but lost to Raut five years later. Former MLA Sudhakar Kohale has been shifted to Nagpur West to fight Congress's sitting MLA Vikas Thakre. Avinash Anandrao Brahmankar has been placed against the state Congress president Nana Patole. Dr Archana Patil Chakurkar will take on former minister and three-time Congress MLA Amit Deshmukh in Latur City. Dr Archana is the daughter-in-law of former Union home minister and Congress veteran Shivraj Patil. MLA Jitesh Antapurkar, who quit the Congress recently, will contest on BJP's ticket from Deglur.
NCP-SP's sitting MLA Devendra Bhuyar from Morshi in Amravati has claimed that he has received an authority letter from his party, but the BJP has named Umesh Yavalkar in the fight. Bhuyar, an independent, had beaten BJP's then-minister Dr Anil Bonde in 2019. He joined NCP's Ajit Pawar faction recently, but his seat has gone to the BJP in seat-sharing. Ajit Pawar's party hadn't officially announced Bhuyar's candidature though.
With Nawab Malik's nomination to be filed from Mankhurd-Shivaji Nagar on Tuesday, the suspense over his affiliation is expected to be unravelled. His daughter Sana has been made NCP-Ajit Pawar's nominee from Anushakti Nagar, the seat her father represents currently. NCP's ally the BJP had opposed Malik's name as a Mahayuti candidate in view of the PMLA cases against him.
Meanwhile, the Shinde Sena announced 15 candidates including two for small allies. BJP leader Shaina NC will contest on a Shiv Sena ticket from Mumbadevi in Mumbai. BJP ex-MP Raosaheb Danve's daughter Sanjana Jadhav will be the Kannad candidate.
In a dramatic development on Monday, NCP-SP leader, former home minister and sitting MLA from Katol, Anil Deshmukh was replaced by his son Salil Deshmukh as the party's official candidate. The father's name was announced in the first list on October 24 but erased a day before the nominations closed. The son was prepared to file his nomination, but the family postponed the event to Tuesday because there was little time at hand to reach the election office on Monday.
